A History Of Belize - A Nation in the Making (Third Entry)

Chapter 4
Slavery and the Slave Trade
The British woodcutters who settled Belize in the 18th century soon looked for people who could work for them. They could not find enough labourers locally, and so they began to use the same source of labour used in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean - slaves from Africa.
Slavery is a system in which human beings are owned and forced to work by their master. Slaves can be bought and sold, and are denied all rights, even to have a say about what happens to their children.
Slavery has existed throughout history, in societies as varied as those of Rome, China and Africa. Many kinds of people in history have been, at some time or another, both slaves and slave owners. But in the Americas there developed a system of slavery that was closely associated with race - almost always, the masters were white and the slaves black. The child of a slave mother was born into slavery, and generally a black person was assumed to be a slave until he or she could prove otherwise. Slavery was built upon the unjustifiable theory that black people were inferior to white people. Because of this, several generations remained in bondage. Racism was used even after slavery to continue the abuse and discrimination of people, simply because of the colour of their skin.
A Labour Force for the Americas
The Europeans severely reduced the population of the Caribbean through war and disease. When they began to use the lands to grow sugar and tobacco and other crops, they needed workers. They took the lands of the indigenous people and forced them to do the work. As the plantations grew larger and larger, more people were needed.
They then looked for white labour. Convicts from Europe were sent to the Caribbean and forced to work. Poor white people came from Europe as "indentured servants". However, there were not enough Europeans who were willing to come to the Americas under these conditions.
In the 15th century the Portuguese began slave trading with Africa. Europeans in the Americas now became involved in this trade to satisfy their need for workers.
The African Slave Trade
Slavery existed in Africa long before the Portuguese arrived. Captured prisoners from wars between the tribes in Africa were often kept as slaves. A slave trade existed within Africa and with East India as early as the 12th century.
The trade in Africans across the Atlantic Ocean began in the early 16th century and continued for almost 350 years. The Europeans made huge profits from this trade. It helped to expand and enrich their economies.
In 1518, the first African slaves arrived in the Americas. They came to Hispaniola from Guinea in West Africa. What began as simply trade in gold, ivory, pepper, and only a few human beings, became a huge trade in human cargo in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The slave trade was part of a triangular trade route. Manufactured goods were taken from Europe to Africa. The goods were exchanged for slaves who were then taken to the Americas. There the slaves were exchanged for sugar and other colonial products which were shipped back to Europe. Many people were involved in this profitable trade, from European and Arabian merchants to African kings.
The trade in Africans across the Atlantic was the largest and most terrible experience of forced human migration the world has ever known. During the 300-year period of slavery, between 15 and 20 million Africans were transported. Millions of Africans were forced to suffer the nightmarish trip into slavery across the Atlantic. This voyage across the Atlantic, the middle stage in the trading triangle, was called the Middle Passage.
People were captured and traded in Africa, then crowded into pens, called baracoons, like cattle. Many died before they even boarded the ships. Once on board, the slaves were so crowded and provided with so little food and water that they often became sick and died. It was common for about a third of the number on a ship to die before they reached the Americas. One ship, the "Hannibal", lost 320 of its 700 slaves. The captain complained about his own "misery", "pain", and "ruin", because he lost so much of his cargo.
While millions of Africans were being enslaved in the Americas, the proud and ancient peoples of Africa were also being conquered and colonized and their cultures destroyed.
The Africans
The earliest human beings appeared in Asia and Africa. Discoveries in eastern and southern Africa show that tool-making peoples lived there more than 500,000 years ago. Like every early civilization around the world they discovered fire, learned to hunt, and cultivated crops.
African hunter-gatherers later became farmers and cattlemen. Around 500 B.C., stone tools and weapons were gradually replaced by iron. This improved their ways of working and fighting so quickly that in a few hundred years different African peoples developed advanced civilizations. Some cultures became skilled metalworkers in gold, copper, tin and bronze. In time, powerful kingdoms and empires were formed. All these developments took place almost 2,000 years before the European slave trade.
African Life
Ancestors played an important part in the lives of African people. They felt that their ancestors could still influence their lives for good or bad. Elders and priests reminded the people of their ancient customs and traditions and they were advisors to the kings. They were also the judges, the medicine men, and the religious leaders.
Although African religions are very different from one another, they are similar in many ways. African religions, like many others, believed in many gods. Each god had special powers, or watched over a special activity. Each craft and trade had its own god. There were also the gods of the earth, sky, and the sun.
Music was closely connected with the religious traditions. Two important features of African music were intricate rhythms and call and response compositions, where the leader sings, then the chorus sings back.
Music festivals were used to celebrate important social and religious events. Drums were used to communicate from one village to the next. These were called "talking drums." Even today Africans have many different kinds of drums. A wide variety of instruments were used in addition to drums, such as banjos, castanets, clarinets, trumpets, fiddles, fifes, flutes, rattles, tambourines and triangles.
The slave trade destroyed the wealth and property in African societies, but most Africans kept their cultural heritage. Those who came to the Americas brought their culture with them.